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Waterbury reconstruction site bustles

Project Administrator Mike Stevens gives a tour of the renovation and reconstruction of the Waterbury office complex on Wednesday, August 27, 2014. The complex was flooded out by the Winooski River three years ago during Tropical Storm Irene.(Photo: GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS)Buy Photo

The Waterbury Office Complex has finally thrown off its dejected appearance — three years after Tropical Storm Irene cut the economic heart out of Waterbury when it sent a surge of floodwaters from the Winooski River through the state government's largest campus.

On the eve of the storm's third anniversary, the site buzzed with 170 workers in neon yellow shirts doing dozens of jobs to transform the former sprawling mental health institution into a flood-resistant, state-of-the art office complex for nearly 900 employees of the Agency of Human Services.

Hard-hat wearing men guided forklifts and cranes to heft building materials from stockpiles.

Crews maneuvered sheathing into place on the steel framework for a new 87,000-square-foot office building.

Masons laid and mortared granite blocks to fill the basement window spaces of the historic buildings being renovated.

April, 2014

Aerial photos of the construction at the Waterbury State Office Complex on April 2014.
(Photo:
COURTESY
)

July, 2014

Aerial photos of the construction at the Waterbury State Office Complex on July 2014.
(Photo:
COURTESY
)

Inside those structures, workers tore away walls and floors while others shoveled gravel across the sandwich of concrete and special super-lightweight cement material that will fill the basements of the historic structures to make them flood resistant in the future.

"The work that is going on there is really history and is going to transform Waterbury into a new era," said Barb Farr, long-term community recovery director, of the $125 million project.

Mike Stevens, project administrator, escorted visitors through the security fence and helped them pick their way around piles of materials to a far corner where the biomass plant is taking shape. He pointed to the line of trees arcing along the back of the lot.

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Project Administrator Mike Stevens gives a tour of the renovation and reconstruction of the Waterbury office complex on Wednesday. The complex was flooded by the Winooski River three years ago during Tropical Storm Irene.(Photo: GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS)

That's the river, he said. Invisible now, the Winooski has twice raged over its banks and inundated the state-owned complex: Once in 1927 when the facility was a mental institution and again three years ago when it was the workspace for more than 1,000 state employees and two state agencies.

He wanted to point out the newly seeded swale that will clean runoff from the development before it reaches the river. "This is something I never envisioned happening this year," Stevens said of the final-stage site work going on at the edge of the property.

The project began a year ago with demolition of a dozen buildings and additions. Construction commenced in the spring. Work will wrap up late in 2015, with employees moving in over four months starting in December.

Stevens pointed, also, to the 10-foot rise in the grade of the land to the new "plateau" created for the biomass plant. Truckloads of fill have raised ground level here and wherever new development is taking place on the site.

"All occupied space will be six inches above the 500-year flood," Stevens said, referring to the projected height that a once-in-five-centuries flood might reach. The new ground-floor level for all buildings will be at least 3 feet above Irene's flood waters, he said.

Stevens took his visitors toward the steel frame of the new office building, a trek that involved dodging a tanker truck spraying water to control dust and skirting a fenced enclosure around a giant oak tree. It is one of the "historic specimen trees," Stevens explained. State officials and the architects hope to keep alive and thriving.

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The entryway of a new building is seen during a tour of the renovation and reconstruction of the Waterbury office complex on Wednesday, August 27, 2014. The complex was flooded out by the Winooski River three years ago during Tropical Storm Irene.(Photo: GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS)

Standing at the future entrance to the entire complex, which will be on the river side, Stevens pointed to the large open atrium area that can be visualized thanks to the steel framework. "We are substantially complete with steel erection on the new office building," he said.

He pointed to the second level above the entry. Conference rooms will run across the front of the building, he said. "The view of the mountains in Bolton is going to be spectacular."

Moving toward the south end of the historic buildings being saved, Stevens pointed out bracing, inside and out, that was installed to support the structures while crews gut and then reconfigure the interiors.

At the north end, masons brick in basement windows with granite blocks. Windows are unnecessary since the basement spaces are being filled.

Stevens said the buildings at the north end have provided some surprises. "We knew we were going to find stuff, we just didn't know what we would find." It turns out that the workmanship on the north end is inferior to that on the south end.

For example, "the integrity of the masonry was very suspect," he said. "We have spent a lot of time repairing mortar."

Workers have also found the floors far from level. "Some floors are so far out of level we just have a pick a point" for the new elevation.

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Work on an existing building is seen during a tour of the renovation and reconstruction of the Waterbury office complex on Wednesday, August 27, 2014. The complex was flooded out by the Winooski River three years ago during Tropical Storm Irene.(Photo: GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS)

Around to the Main Street side of the complex, Stevens noted historic features such as terra-cotta decorations and cupolas that will be restored. He pointed out a brick fire escape that will be removed from the side of the historic building that anchors the brick structures facing the green.

Stevens said he makes rounds on the site most days — just to see what is going on. The state Department of Buildings and General Services wants Vermonters, especially Waterbury residents, to keep up with the project, too, Steven said.

That's why the department hosts tours on the first Saturday of each month beginning at 9:30 a.m. Stevens listed other places to find updates: